THE DISCOVERY OF THE CODEX

THE discovery of the Codex Sinaiticus by Tischendorf is one of the best-known stories in the history of Palaeography The study of ancient handwriting and the dating of historical manuscripts.. In 1844 Tischendorf, who had planned a fresh critical edition of the New Testament, and had already visited most of the great libraries of the West, was travelling in the East in order to discover what new light might still be obtained from the monastic libraries. In the convent of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai he found in a basket, which he understood to contain material for lighting the fire, forty-three leaves of the Septuagint The ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.. These he obtained, and published in 1846 under the title of the Codex Frederico-Augustanus.¹ This codex is now at Leipzig. He ascertained that the rest of the MS. Abbreviation for manuscript. was in existence; and though he was unable to obtain possession of it, he cherished the hope of returning at some later period and of then being more successful. That in this way Tischendorf rightly earned the fame of discovering this valuable MS. would be denied by no one; but M. Seymour de Ricci, in the Archaeological Review original: "Revue Archéologique", 1909, p. 159, has recently pointed out that it was probably seen as early as 1761 by the Italian traveller, Vitaliano Donati, in his visit to Mt. Sinai. Donati's diary is still unpublished, but extracts were made from it by G. Lumbroso, in the Proceedings of the Royal Lincean Academy original: "Atti della R. Accademia dei Lincei" in 1879, in which on p. 501 the following statement is found: 'In this monastery I found a very great quantity of parchment codices . . . there are some which seemed to me to be prior to the seventh century, and in particular a Bible on very beautiful parchment, quite large, thin, and square, written in a round and very beautiful script; they also keep in the church a Greek Gospel Book in round gold script, which must also be quite ancient.' The MS. in gold letters is no doubt the Golden Gospel Book original: "Evangelistarium Aureum" (Gregory Evst. 300) which is still shown to travellers, and the 'Bible' may well be, as M. de Ricci suggests, the Codex Sinaiticus. The objection that the script is described as 'round' original: "rotondo" is adequately met by the fact that the Golden Gospel Book, which is also 'round', is an uncial A script written entirely in capital letters, common in early manuscripts.: no doubt Donati meant to distinguish the script from the narrow contracted type of uncial found in some late MSS.

After Tischendorf left the monastery, the MS. seems to have been seen by two other scholars. In 1845 Porphyrius Uspenski¹ visited Sinai, and saw the MS.—not only the remnant which Tischendorf had seen, but also the other parts to which it was now reunited. It would therefore seem that Tischendorf's conversation with the monks had aroused them to a sense of the value of their property. Porphyrius Uspenski also found some fragments of the MS. in the bindings of other MSS.² Besides Porphyrius Uspenski it is generally thought that the MS. was seen by Major Macdonald, a Scotsman who visited Sinai in 1848.³ Whether, however, this MS. was really the Codex Sinaiticus or another MS. of later date is doubted by Prof. Gregory⁴; fortunately the point is as unimportant as its discussion is indecisive.

In 1853 Tischendorf returned to Sinai, but could find no trace of the MS., or even discover whether it was still in the library. In 1859, however, he again visited the Mountain, armed with an introduction from the Tsar, and was warmly welcomed, but did not venture directly to approach the search for the MS. until one evening he found a favourable opportunity for leading the conversation on to the subject of the

¹ From the name of the King of Saxony, under whose patronage he was travelling.

¹ See his First journey to the Sinai monastery in 1845 original: "Первое путешествіе въ Синайскій монастырь въ 1845 г." Petersburg, 1856, pp. 225-38. Porphyrius was afterwards Archbishop of Sinai.
² Containing Genesis 23:19-24:4; 5-8; 10-14; 17-19; 25-7; 30-3; 36-41; 43-6; Numbers 5:26-30; 6:5-6; 11-12; 17-18; 22-7; 7:4-5; 12-13; 15-26. Published first by Tischendorf in his Appendix of the most famous Sinaitic, Vatican, and Alexandrian Codices original: "Appendix Codicum celeberrimorum Sinaitici Vaticani Alexandrini", Leipzig, 1867.
³ See Horne and Tregelles's Introduction to the New Testament, 2nd edition, 1860, p. 775.
⁴ See his Textual Criticism original: "Textkritik", vol. i, p. 23.